Duos or Duels
by wikelia
Summary: The teens decide to have a duel to see who is the best fighter. One Mr. Haddock is VERY hesitant to show what he can do. Drabble written for Celebrate HTTYD Week on Tumblr.
"Resupplying," said Hiccup, feeling a headache coming on, "in no way, means STEALING."

Two faces stared back at him in surprise. Tuffnut blinked. He began to speak, slightly guilty.

"Then we've been resupplying the wrong way for a LONG time, Hiccup."

"Yeah," Ruff added, "You really should have taught us this a while ago. In fact, we should totally start a 'How to Resupply' academy instead of this stupid dragon training academy. Who's dumb idea was dragon training anyway?"

"You realize," Hiccup responded, ignoring her last question, "that if we didn't train dragons, we wouldn't have a reason to be resupplying right now?"

"Oh."

"OH."

The heir of Berk was about to make another comment when something - something SHARP - whizzed by him, missing him by a few inches.

Immediately his new sword was drawn out, the one that could now light up with the Monstrous Nightmare saliva (he was thinking about calling INFERNO) and he spun around like a ballerina, ready to fight whatever intruder was trying to kill him.

"Snotlout?"

"Ha!" His cousin snorted with laughter. "You should have seen your face!"

Next to him, Astrid was shaking her head, looking slightly out of breath. "This is why," she began, pointing an accusatory finger at her boyfriend, "you don't send me to get weapons from the forge with HIM."

"At least we got to see the new sword!" Ruffnut exclaimed. "You've been hiding it since forever!"

"I added the new part in TWO DAYS AGO!"

"WAY too long."

"Hey, guys. Can we go back to Hiccup's paranoid face when I aimed that shot at him?" asked Snotlout hopefully.

"No," the group echoed, including Fishlegs, who had just into the arena from behind.

The chubby boy turned to Hiccup. "I've got everything I need, so Meatlug and I are ready to go!"

"Great," replied the boy distractedly, checking out his sword. "You guys think I could add Zippleback gas to this?"

"Wouldn't matter," boasted Snotlout, "You still wouldn't be able to beat me in a fight."

All of a sudden Tuff's face lit up in a grin. "Careful, Snotlout. Remember what happened last time you challenged Hiccup?"

As Snotlout spluttered, Astrid and Fishlegs perked up. "What happened?" asked Fishlegs, curiosity etched over his face.

Ruff jumped at the chance to tell them what happened. "Snotlout's paper jaw -"

"Hey!"

"Met Thor's mighty hammer!" Tuff finished with grabbing Hiccup's hand and waving it around. The boy in question yelped.

"Thor's mighty hammer?" Astrid looked amused. "Hiccup's fist is THOR'S MIGHTY HAMMER?"

"We couldn't believe it either, my flaxen-haired friend. It was truly a spectacle. Wouldn't you be in shock too?"

"Hey, sis, was that a rhetatical question, cause -"

The "flaxen-haired" girl walked up to the now blushing brown-haired boy to examine his fist. "Thor's mighty hammer, huh?" she asked him with a grin. "More like Thor's drinking straw."

"Ha-ha," Hiccup responded back, dry sarcasm evident. "Hilarious."

"I wasn't ready that time!" Snotlout protested. "I know I can beat dragon boy in a fight!"

"With weapons?" the male twin taunted.

He gulped but nodded. "Yeah. Bring it!"

"I don't know, Snotlout," said Fishlegs, ever the worrier. "You really wanna fight the Chief's son?"

"That doesn't make a difference," the boy responded haughtily, "I've trained more than he has."

Astrid looked between the two boys. "If this is happening, I wanna be a part of it too."

Hiccup started. "We are not -"

"Us too!" echoed the twins, before banging their heads together.

"Guys, guys." Hiccup held his hands out in a calming manner. "What do we have to gain by fighting each other?"

"We're Vikings, it's what we do, dragon boy," teased Snotlout.

"Astrid?" He turned to her in a pleading manner.

She merely shrugged. "Sounds fun."

The boy groaned. He KNEW her could sword fight, in fact, it was something he was rather good at. He had a good chance of beating Snotlout and the twins, and maybe even Astrid.

But he wasn't stupid.

He knew the consequences of winning. Snotlout would sulk for days. He'd grumble and protest more than usual. He'd be an absolute nightmare. No pun intended.

The twins would be absolutely fine with losing, but would pester him to fight them more. They'd constantly bug him, wanting to improve their skills, and they might murder him with jump-attacks.

And Astrid.

Astrid Hofferson was a warrior, he knew that quite well. She was the second strongest person he knew, the first being his father. She was competitive. She didn't like losing.

Most importantly, she was his girlfriend.

So, the nice thing to do would be to let her win, right?

He'd have to be subtle, very subtle. If the others knew he was doing it on purpose, there would be even worse consequences. Astrid wouldn't like him "going easy on her" and definitely wouldn't understand he was just going easy on himself.

"Just so you guys know," Fishlegs stated calmly, "I am not participating in this."

 _I don't want to either_ , thought Hiccup desperately.

No way out now. He loved his friends and all, but they were the craziest, roughest, nuttiest lot in the world.

"Alright, Hiccup," Snotlout said giddily, now that Hiccup had agreed to participate, "You can use your flashy new sword and we'll use these ones I got from the forge." He gestured to all the weapons deposited on the floor.

"I'll be using my axe, thank you very much."

"Hey, can we use spears?" Ruffnut was getting happier by the minute. The possibility of maiming someone was endearing, apparently.

"No," Hiccup answered, frowning, "Guys, we're gonna disarm each other. NOTHING MORE -"

"Nothing less," Astrid finished seriously.

"Actually," he turned to her with a pleading face, "I was thinking maybe we COULD do less."

"Scared, Haddock?" she asked. "Scared to lose to Snotface?"

Yeah, sure, that could work.

"Maybe," he admitted, "I don't think I should go up against him."

Her voice lowered. "Come on, Hiccup." She moved closer to him and began fixing his collar as she spoke. "Wouldn't you just LOVE to put him in his place? I know fully well that you can fight. No need to hide it from the world. Or your friends." She pecked his cheek. "You're not the shy boy in the forge anymore."

"Was the shy boy in the forge that bad?"

"No, he was quite dashing too," she said with a grin. "Except for his stalking tendencies."

"Excuse you," he cried indignantly, "I did not STALK you."

"Whatever you say, babe." With that, her axe was raised, and she had it up against his throat. "Just know, I won't go easy on you." And she walked off and started stretching.

Hiccup rolled his eyes. How unconfident were they in his abilities? She wouldn't go easy on him? He wasn't that - that BAD that he needed someone to go EASY on him.

For a brief second, he had half a mind to go all out and show them what he could really do, but the idea passed as soon as it came. Ideas came with consequences. And the consequences, in this case, were more bad than good.

He walked over to Fishlegs. "What's the fastest and easiest way for us to do this?"

Fishlegs stood in silence for a while. "There's a simple way, but…" He sighed. "It would involve me joining too. And I don't want to join."

"Too late!" yelled Tuff, who had been standing behind him. "What's the idea?"

Fishlegs sighed again, but submitted to his doom rather quickly. "We all pick a partner. We fight them. So, if Ruff and Tuff fought each other, and Astrid and Hiccup fought each other, whoever wins in both fights would go up against the other."

Hang on. This way, everyone would lose except for one person. Well, Odin knew it wouldn't be him.

"That's a good idea," Astrid mused, "But there would be three groups. How are we gonna manage that?"

"Like this. If you won from Hiccup, you fight - who would be left? Me and Snotlout? - you fight Snotlout, and the other winner fights me and then the last two winners would go up against each other. Fair?"

"Fair," Astrid confirmed. "Except I wanna be partnered with Snotlout."

Everyone turned to look at her with surprised faces, the most surprised of which was Snotlout himself.

"I knew you couldn't resist me, ba-"

"Ugh." She made a vomiting motion with her hand. "I'm doing it because I want to take you out early."

He put on an affronted face. "As if! Bring it, Astrid!"

And that fight began.

Meanwhile, Fishlegs whispered urgently into Hiccup's ear. "Can you fight me? You're the only one who will let me down easy. And trust me, I WANT to be let down before I have to fight the Thorstons."

Of course he could count on Fishlegs to want to be out. This meant he'd have to fight either Ruff or Tuff next and lose to them. Well, it was better than losing to Snotlout at any rate. More risky, though.

Hiccup sighed. Everything was more risky when his friends were involved.

He took out Inferno as Fishlegs picked up a sword from the pile. For a moment, they just stared at each other awkwardly before both boys raised their swords at the same time and met in the middle. It was an uncomfortable fight. Both of them had no real reason to give it their all, or even try to beat the other. Hiccup disarmed him after two minutes, and his friend breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks, Hiccup."

Ruff and Tuff were both grinning now, while Snotlout and Astrid's debacle was still going on. Unlike him and Fishlegs, the two warriors gave out battle cries every two seconds, dodged and rolled like professionals, and literally looked like they were trying to kill the other.

"So, Hiccup," Ruffnut began, still watching their friends trying to rip each others' throats out, "Which of us do you wanna fight?"

He hadn't thought about that yet. Which one WAS he going to fight? Both the Thorston twins were crazy, kind of merciless, and had no qualms about doing whatever it took to win. And they were both braggarts.

Tuff would take winning a serious accomplishment and would probably boast to Snotlout that even though HE might be able to get pushed around by the scrawny heir of Berk, he didn't. And maybe he'd snicker for the first five minutes.

Ruffnut Thorston was a different case. She'd dance around, and sing about his defeat to him, to Astrid, to Fishlegs, heck, she'd sing it to Spitelout if she got the chance.

Meanwhile, Tuff would brag the most to Snotlout.

Looked like he was going to choose the male twin.

"Tuff," he said, after taking a considerable amount of time. "I'll fight him, and you can fight either Snot or Astrid."

"Astrid," Ruff confirmed, looking over his shoulder.

And indeed, the blonde Valkyrie had beaten Hiccup's cousin, who was lying on the floor groaning with his sword five feet away from him. Astrid had a triumphant smirk on her face. She grinned at him. "Hey, you fighting Ruff or Tuff?"

"Tuff."

"Great," she said, grinning. "Leave the female counterpart to me."

The female counterpart raised her eyes. "What makes you so sure you'll beat me?"

"It's this thing called confidence," replied Astrid, "That, and we have brawled before."

"When we were kids."

"Mmhm. And who still practices? Me."

Ruff smirked. "If that's what you want to believe. Let's start?"

Astrid raised her axe and nodded. Ruff charged with her sword and met her head on with such force that the girl took a few steps backwards. Astrid snarled and responded with an equal amount of force.

Back and forth, the two girls went, neither one wanting to go down. Hiccup was so enamored with the fight that when he was tapped on the back, he stupidly turned around to Tuff bringing his sword down at him. He barely had time to raise Inferno and block the hit. Because of that, he was pushed to the floor and forced to roll as the sword was too close to him. Hiccup scrambled to his feet and parried Tuff's next attack.

The male Thorston grinned maniacally as he raised the sword for another blow. "What's wrong, Hiccup? Where's Thor's mighty hammer when you need it?"

"We're swordfighting, aren't we?" mumbled Hiccup with gritted teeth, "Punching is different than swordfighting, I think."

After a good three minutes, it was time to lose. He could still hear two other pieces of metal bashing against each other, so Ruff and Astrid's fight was still going on. Time to be humiliated. He held out his arm in a raised position, so it looked like he was finally on the attack instead of the defense, and Tuff knocked Inferno out of his hand with a lazy flick of the arm.

"Well, then," said Hiccup, smiling awkwardly, "Guess you won."

"Yes!" Tuffnut pumped his arm into the air. "Hey, Snotman!"

"What?" called out the stocky boy, who was still watching the girls.

Tuffnut threw his own sword next to Snotlout's foot, causing him to yelp and step back. When he looked at them, he put on an impassive face, but his cousin was sure he had seen him look surprised.

"So you beat Hiccup. No big deal."

"Yeah, no big deal," Hiccup agreed, leaning down to pick up his own sword, which was now bent from one side and was spilling out Monstrous Nightmare saliva. It was a minor bend, and he took the handle of a spear and hammered it back into place quickly.

"Wait, Tuff won?" Astrid called out behind her.

"Yup," Fishlegs confirmed, "So, if you beat Ruff -"

He did not finish, for in that moment, a single weapon went flying out into the open.

Hiccup shouldn't have been surprised, because someone was bound to lose lately. But he was surprised, because it had not been a sword that clanged to the floor, it had been an axe.

All the teens stared in silence.

Astrid had lost.

Astrid Hofferson.

Astrid Hofferson had just LOST to Ruffnut Thorston.

Even Ruff was looking at the axe in surprise, before her and her brother whooped loudly and banged their heads together. Then, the singing began.

"We won, you lost."

"You suck, we rock."

"Real original, guys," muttered the axe maiden.

As Ruffnut and Tuffnut were celebrating (and no, they weren't going to go up against each other to see who was better. It didn't need to be said out loud, the game was over, and all the teens were well aware that the twins saw no reason to fight each other to see who was a better fighter), Hiccup turned to Astrid sympathetically.

"Sorry about...you know."

"Do you think I can't handle losing, Hiccup?"

The question caught him off guard. "What? No, I don't think -"

"Then why'd you throw the competition?" she asked, turning to face him.

"I - I," he stuttered, because this WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN, "I didn't throw the -"

"Yeah, you did. It was Thawfest all over again," she said idly, "Except there's no pressure on any of us from our parents and I know you'd never brag if you won. Not seriously, anyway. So why'd you do it?"

He was lost at responding. He'd thought his acting was pretty good, and Astrid hadn't even been watching him and Tuff for Thor's sake.

"I just...you know. They'd get upset," he concluded lamely.

Astrid crossed her arms. "What about me?"

"I was...kinda scared to fight you."

"Liar."

He stared at her guiltily. She glared back at him, her arms still crossed and a deep scowl on her face. "WELL?"

"Gods, Ast." He ran a hand through his hair. "I - I don't know. I didn't want to fight you, in case I lost!"

"In case YOU lost?" she asked quietly, "Or in case _I_ lost?"

He gaped at her.

"Hiccup," she sighed, shaking her head, "I wouldn't mind, you know. Yes, I'm competitive, and yes, I can get…"

"Violent?" Hiccup offered.

"Yeah, that," she mumbled, "But that doesn't mean that...that you have to be scared of beating me. I can take it."

"I know you can take it," he said honestly, "I really do. But it's awkward for ME, alright? Especially because this is your area of specialty."

"It's supposed to be Snotlout's area to be annoying. But you're filling that role for him just fine." She grinned with an aura of sarcasm surrounding her.

"Ha-ha. But really, I don't wanna fight if I don't have to."

"Then you should tell us," Astrid mumbled, "We're your friends."

He breathed out a sigh of relief. She was taking this much better than he thought she would. Maybe he really had undermined her. And the others. Ruff and Tuff were already done singing and were now banging their own heads to see who could knock themselves out first.

"That's fair," he admitted, "Sorry, Ast."

She sent a small smile his way, before drawing back her fist and punching him in the shoulder. "That's for throwing the competition." And she walked off.

"Wait, what about the 'everything else'?"

"Nah. Oh, and you have to fight me for real later."

"ASTRID."


End file.
